Best tuner for bass

[MichaelDean]

6 hours ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

I meant to add. I've used a couple of clip on tuners in the past when they first started becoming main stream and couldn't get on with them. The cheap one just didn't work very well on bass and I replaced it with an intellitouch model. This one worked fine in the shop and at home where it was quiet, but was rubbish at gigs.  It would pick up vibrations in noisy environments and fail to read the lower strings.  

 

I don't know if clip on tuners are any better for bass these days, but past reliability experience has put me right off. I'd rather plug directly into a tuner any day.

The TC clip on ones are great. If a clip on is something you'd find useful, I'd recommend picking one up. My Unitune is almost as quick as the pedal and seems to cope with a B string just fine. 

[CameronJ]

Just a heads up that Gear4Music seem to have the best price by far for the TC clip tuners. They’re selling the Unitune Clip for about £25 at the moment. No other retailer seems to come close to that price!

[moley6knipe]

A Boss TU-2 or 3 is a solid choice. Buffers you on the way in and the DC outlet is handy too. Plenty tuning options and they stay set when you’ve set them. The WazaCraft version if you’re buffer adverse for any reason.

 

That said the Peterson StroboStomp HD has to be the epitome of floor tuners. Bright, more tuning modes than you’ll ever need, your choice of buffered, bypass or always on, DC power outlet. I only have a couple of presets in (standard and dropped) but if you or anyone in the house plays anything stringed, this is the fella to get.

Edited September 20, 2022 by moley6knipe

[moley6knipe]

14 hours ago, three said:

I use the Peterson Strobostomp HD and frankly, apart from the old reference Conn and Peterson, it's the finest tuner I've experienced.  Great for super-accurate set-up work, and as a general board or floor tuner.  Slow is certainly close enough in most (all for me) gigging circumstances and the tuner is really easy to use in real world settings.  Visibility is excellent in both bright and dark environments.  A very robust unit too.  I'll be using mine later for a set-up job - the Peterson excels for pretty much anything. 

Excellent write up, spot on. That’s another big plus with the Peterson… it’s GREAT for setting intonation, whether you fret or harmonic to set it

[Rob Bisby]

In my opinion, korg pitchblack

[neepheid]

I've had the same Boss TU-2 since 2008 and it's been in and out of bags, trod on I don't know how many times, trampled on by a drunk lady, and it still keeps on going.  If it ever dies, I'll probably get a TU-3.  As a minimalist, the DC daisychain to my one other pedal (overdrive) is also very handy.

 

BUT, it's not great in direct sunlight.  But how many outdoor gigs do you do?  I only do them once in a blue moon so I don't mind shading the display with my foot while using it because apart from this very minor and occasional quibble, it has been as good as gold.

Edited October 4, 2022 by neepheid

[Crusoe]

On 15/09/2022 at 18:22, Mudpup said:

I've been using a D'Addario pedal tuner for years and really rate it 

 

That's a really good price - they are normally £89. I have the Pedal Tuner +, but i got mine for nothing 😄

[SumOne]

The D'Addario is the best one I've owned (one downside being I find the # symbol a bit small to see).

 

Korg Pitchbalck mini is good too, a slight downside I've found having owned two of them is they both spat out certain jacks rather than holding onto them tightly so I ended up with elastic bands around them.

 

I like the look of the new Nux but haven't tried it yet: https://www.nuxefx.com/flowtune.html it seems the best of both, it does the D'Addario thing of having the more intuative up/down display rather than left/right, and the Korg thing of being small. And it can do buffered bypass.

 

I'm going clip-on tuner next though - it simplifies things for times I want to just plug directly into an amp without any pedalboard. I've just ordered a Korg Pitchclip 2 (£14 incl.  postage Amazon prime), the v1 is on sale for £7 direct from Korg but they charge £5 postage so I thought I might as well go for v2. If it's anything like other Korg tuners then I expect it'll do the job well, I wasn't sure if the extra £20 for the Unitune would've been worthwhile but I guess I'll soon find out if the Korg turns out to be unreadable or falls apart......will report back!  EDIT: It arrived, it seems to work well - including on the open B string, it is much smaller than I expected (almost comically small - like when people buy a cheap chair online and only find out when it's delivered that its a Doll's chair), it isn't easily readable in direct sunlight but fine indoors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by SumOne

[StingRayBoy42]

Boss TU-2

I've had mine since God was a boy and it's never let me down.

If you do want a clip on, the Boss TU-10 is good.

I'm sure the Korgs and Petersons are nice too! 😀

[tauzero]

Zoom B3, Zoom B3n, Zoom MS-60B, Tanglewood something, Korg CA2, Tascam GB-10, MOD Dwarf, Line 6 HX Stomp. I've tuned basses with all of them, and more, without problems. The point being that if you have a multifx with a tuner, you shouldn't need to take a separate tuner too.

 

I do occasionally think of getting a Strobostomp for setting up intonation. So far I've got away with playing the 12th fret harmonic and comparing it with the fretted octave.

[Downunderwonder]

TC is boycotted after the "sounds like X watts" nonsense. Being part of B'ringer's tribe now only seals the deal.

 

A Korg Pitchblack works AOK and actually a tad better than when I have the full pedalboard in service.

[BassAdder60]

I use the Boss TU3 and it’s a great tuner for bass

I too use the DC out link to power my Sansamp Bass driver pedal 

 

I’ve also got TC Polytune clip on but they struggle in a loud venue ( they seem to pickup vibrations that interfere with the bass vibrations ) 

 

Can’t go wrong with the Boss unit 

[Japhet]

On 12/09/2022 at 23:25, chris_b said:

I've used a Korg Pitchblack since they came out.

 

I'm also looking for a clip on tuner. I've been recommended the Korg Pitchclip. Does anyone have experience of this tuner?

 

Pitchclip works well. I've had a couple of them for years and always been fine.

[BassAdder60]

15 minutes ago, Japhet said:

 

Pitchclip works well. I've had a couple of them for years and always been fine.

I like the TC clip on tuner works very well 

[ASW]

I ended up buying a TC Electronic Polytune 3 and am very happy with it. I prefer it to a Boss TU2 I used to have as it's easier to see.

 

I also decided to buy the clip on Polytune for home use and am very impressed with it. I have lots of cheap Korg clip on tuners, but the polytune is much better and easier to to get the instrument in tune.

[TeresaFR]

Korg Pitch lack Advanced fan over here.

[tauzero]

For use in setups, maybe live, but not a pedal - Korg GA Custom, another strobe tuner which is rather considerably cheaper than a Peterson.

[itu]

At the moment I would like to see some comments on bad tuners, as everything seems to be as great as America (for those who didn't get my last words, it really was sarcasm).

 

I had a Peterson Stomp that died. Pedal versions seem to be bulky and the form factor do not support the possibility to carry it to backstage without tearing the pedal board to parts. And a fresh battery should be there, too. My choice was a cheapo Ibanez with tap tempo metronome (actually two for both gig bags). Small and reliable. At home I have a bigger handheld Korg and Peterson. They are powerful, but on the other hand so big that they stay at home.

[ordep]

I tried almost all of them, except the Strobostomp HD. I got my Sonic Research Turbo Tuner middle of 2012 and is still being used till now. I love it so much I bought another. 
 

Atm my tuning arsenal consist of turbo tuner x2, Strobostomp classic (because od its DI out) and the tuners from my Helix Stomp and Zoom B1on. The Turbo Tuner beat them all. 

Edited November 30, 2022 by ordep